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3 stars out of 4

Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake are a lot of fun together in "Friends with Benefits," with some real chemistry and a rapid-fire repartee that never gets old. It's a romantic comedy that makes fun of romantic comedies, and the stars keep it lively and highly watchable, even as their film inevitably gets stuck in the very straitjacket of the genre it mocks.

They're new friends who live in separate, fabulous New York apartments that I suspect would be far above whatever income bracket they're in. They decide to have sex together for fun, as if it were something as casual as, say, playing tennis: "No relationship. No emotions. Just sex."

They swear to that on a Bible app, and off they go into some exceedingly explicit dialogue and sexual situations — though if you're keeping track, only the stars' buns are bared (Timberlake's get far more attention than Kunis'). The jokes fly fast and dirty here, and it's really refreshing to see the funny side of sex so cheerily presented; I'd recommend you keep an ear out for the digging-to-China joke.

Woody Harrelson gets big laughs as a way-of-out-the-closet sports editor, though little of his dialogue could be repeated here. As Timberlake's dad and sister, Richard Jenkins and Jenna Elfman create some quiet poignancy in the middle of all the snarkiness. The usually reliable Patricia Clarkson, however, never really registers as Kunis' wayward mother.

The script has a fine, glib time with various targets of genial mockery: John Mayer and his wimpiness. Harry Potter and his sexual preferences. Snowboarder Shaun White and his curly red locks. Even everyone's hero, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, gets some ribbing (how hard, really, is it to fly a computerized plane these days, after all?).

Mostly though, "Friends With Benefits" pokes fun at romantic-comedy cliches, the target being a soggy movie-within-a-movie starring Jason Segal and Rashida Jones, a pic full of public declarations of love, wistful pop songs and lines like, "I love that sunsets make you cry."

The trouble is, director Will Gluck (of last year's witty "Easy A") has pretty much boxed himself in: It's inevitable that "Friends With Benefits" is itself forced to rely on public declarations of love and wistful pop songs over its own heartbreak montages.

Luckily for us, sappy, florid dialogue is never a problem here: The script nimbly avoids all such things. Cheers to that.